Basics - Rough Guide to Fiji - page 68

an additional week. Posting items from Fiji is cheap and somewhat quicker, with letters to
Europe commonly taking less than ten days. All letters and postcards should be labelled with
an airmail sticker otherwise they may go by boat, taking months to arrive. UPS, DHL and
Federal Express all have offices in Suva and Nadi, although Post Fiji's in-house courier ser-
vice , EMS, is considerably cheaper.
Stamps are available from most hotels and gift shops, as well as some bookstores. Public
mail boxes are very rare, and you should always find the nearest post office to mail important
items; most resorts, especially those on the outer islands, will post letters for you.
Poste restante is available at all post offices. Letters should be marked “General Delivery,
Poste Restante”, followed by the location of the post office and your name. Letters will be
held for two months - for post sent to Nadi, be sure to specify either Nadi Town or Nadi Air-
port. To receive a parcel in Fiji, you must clear it through the post office's customs counter
(Mon-Fri 10am-11am & 2pm-3pm), and pay a service charge plus any customs or import
duty.
ADDRESSES
Fijian addresses are something of an enigma. There is no door-to-door postal service so
anybody wanting to receive mail uses a PO Box number; consequently few people know
their residential address or display a house number. In towns, the majority of shops and
businesses don't have a shop number, although street addresses are mostly signposted. On
Viti Levu, the main road around the island - called the Queens Road along the south coast
and the Kings Road along the north coast - passes through most towns where it more com-
monly reverts to “Main Street” or “High Street”. On outer islands, addresses are a complete
unknown except identifying a village or settlement. Directions are equally vague and you
shouldn't necessarily take someone's earnest advice as fact.
Maps
Navigating between towns is very straightforward, with just one or two main roads on each
island. General-purpose town or island maps are hard to come by, the most useful being the
free Jason's Travel Media map available from most hotel tour desks. A slightly more detailed
folded sheet map is published by Hema and available in bookstores and large chain stores
around Nadi and Suva for F$12.95.
For 1:250,000 topographical maps of the individual islands and 1:15,000 town maps
(around F$8-9 each), contact the Lands and Survey Department ( 321 1395,
www.lands.gov.fj ) or visit the Map Shop on the ground floor and at the back of Government
Buildings in Suva, or the Government Bookshop on Rodwell Road, also in Suva.